


No Man Left Behind

by Ruinous



Series: That 2012 Timeline [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everyone Has Issues, F/M, Gen, M/M, POV Steve Rogers, Protective Steve, Steve Has Issues, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-23 18:59:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18708034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruinous/pseuds/Ruinous
Summary: **ENDGAME SPOILERS**Tony stared after the departed agents. “Did all those mooks just leave because you lectured them? The same agents who never leave me alone no matter how annoying I am? Am I just hallucinating this? Bruce, tell me this isn’t some traitorous vision my dying brain is cooking up.”“I’m not that kind of doctor, Tony,” Bruce muttered in distraction, tugging at the collar of his SHIELD jacket. “And if you were hallucinating, I’d just be a figment of your imagination anyway. Hey, does anyone have a shirt that isn’t government issue?”“Do you need to—go to a hospital or something, Tony?” Steve asked hesitantly.ORLoki’s escape and subsequent actions shakes Steve’s confidence in SHIELD, leading to a much closer Avengers team. Steve-centric. Tony-friendly. Team friendship.





	No Man Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

> I really have no business starting another fic, but I feel like the Avengers deserved something from me. 11 years, 22 movies. I still remember watching the first Iron Man in highschool and wondering what the buzz was all about. Ah little naive me. Anyway, I love the canon universe and I do accept it as canon, but the Russos have been so nice as to validate our fanfics with an Alternate Universe narrative. And who can resist playing with this concept? (Especially if you're not mentally prepared to accept the end).

Awareness came back in pieces.

Steve groaned as consciousness fully swept over him, igniting all the pain in his body again. His head was pounding, and when he opened his eyes, he had to press his temple against the much cooler floor to ride out the dizziness.

_Inventory_ , he told himself through gritted teeth.

His right arm twinged slightly from the laceration the Chitauri had give him. His left felt somewhat numb from absorbing the impact of the gunfire. There were no injuries to anything below the waist, except perhaps a lack of circulation from the damned awful suit. His back hurt… ah yes, he had landed on some glass, hadn’t he? He twitched his fingers. The nimble movement wasn’t yet beyond him. Still functional.

The soldier’s body wanted to give out on him. A fight with a giant aircraft in the clouds and then an alien army was maybe too much even for Erskine’s formula. He wanted to rest, eat, recover.

Instead, Steve Rogers took a breath, and pushed himself up to his hands and knees.

He didn’t need a supersoldier’s senses to know that Loki had left. The Norse deity would have made himself known already if he were still here. Besides which, as Steve bitterly recalled, he had lost that fight. The patron of mischief would have no reason to stick around after that.

_Bucky is alive._

Why had he fallen for that? It was obvious—so obvious now, that Loki had said that simply to distract him.

Yet still, there were things for Captain America to do. Perhaps the other members of their ragtag group had found Loki, and needed help. Or perhaps Loki had cleanly escaped, in which case they would need to figure out their next moves.

Steve took another breath, and finished dragging his body back to his feet.

Except, as he shifted to a standing position, his head moved, and he caught glimpse of something.

Eyes wide, Steve stared at Loki’s scepter, laying still and innocent a few paces from him.

_What?_

Hesitantly, he took a step towards it, only to pause, and then go forward again. For a long moment he did nothing, simply gawking, wondering if this could possibly be a trap. Loki had at first appeared like any other megalomaniac, run of the mill villain with too much power, but Steve had been coming to see over the course of the day, how much that was not the case. Loki seemed to have plans within plans. Even when the alien army had been defeated, it still wasn’t enough.

It seemed infeasible that Loki would just leave the scepter here after working so hard to retrieve it. There had to be a reason, right?

But then again, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Carefully, Steve knelt and gingerly picked up the ornament. It didn’t pulse. Didn’t go warm. Didn’t set off an explosion.

For a moment Steve doubted himself. Maybe he had somehow managed to fight Loki off after all? Was it possible that he had managed to injure the deity heavily enough for a retreat right before he had passed out? But no. Loki had the scepter in hand. And…

Steve rubbed his chest area with a discomforted swallow. What if the god of mischief had done something to him? A rudimentary analysis suggested that he was not mind controlled, at least not in the way the SHIELD agents were, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to doubt as he did now. But what did he know of alien tech? Was it possible that he’d been made into some kind of sleeper agent?

A shiver ran up his spine at that thought. If so, then he needed… he needed… he wasn’t sure, but he knew he’d need to do _something_.

The sound of footsteps jerked him from his contemplation, and Steve immediately went tense. His head turned. From the distance of the noise, he judged the intruders to be only a couple of minutes away from him. Combat boots. Trained. SHIELD.

He should be glad that reinforcements were coming. He should be glad he could be rid of the responsibility of the scepter, and whatever it might have done to him.

And yet. And yet. Loki had escaped. SHIELD had been compromised before. The Avengers had done their duty but the Tesseract had been lost to an alien hellbent on conquering earth. Steve had told them to leave the Tesseract alone, hadn’t he? And what was worse—SHIELD had been using the Tesseract to build weapons, just as Hydra had. Their confrontation with Fury at the Hellicarrier had been interrupted, but not forgotten.

And maybe, maybe, Steve could have forgiven SHIELD’s infractions as mistakes of the past. But then they had gone ahead and lost Loki’s scepter to the one man they shouldn’t have. What was to prevent Loki from strolling in and taking it again, in the future?

Steve’s grip tightened around the handle of the scepter.

He… found that he didn’t trust SHIELD with the weapon.

And perhaps in other scenarios, he wouldn’t have a choice but to trust them with it anyway. What was he, a man out of time, going to do with alien technology? But now he had other options, didn’t he?

Blue eyes darted around, looking for a hiding place. His eyes alighted on some cabinets. He ran towards the edge of the catwalk, only swooping down to scoop up his shield, and the suitcase which had contained the scepter. Then he leaped.

He landed in a crouch on the strip of flooring below. He hurried over to the cupboards and stuffed the scepter into the most unobtrusive one. Then he ran towards the staircase.

He made it just as the SHIELD agents did. They nearly bowled over each other. Steve noted a couple of agents had their guns hoisted before they recognized him, and so lowered them again.

“Woah Captain,” one of the agents—Steve remembered his name had something to do with a drink—said, raising his hands in surrender. “Easy there. Now what’s the hurry?”

Wordlessly, Steve held out the suitcase, and flicked the clasp. The case fell open. Empty.

The team of SHIELD agents went tense.

“Loki took the scepter,” Steve said, smiling apologetically. “When I found him, he was disguised as me. We fought, but, well…”

 

OoOoOoO

 

He found everyone else at the bottom of Stark’s tower. The federal agents that had appeared earlier were still present, arguing heavily with the remaining avengers. At some point The Hulk had clearly turned back into Bruce, wearing a pair of ill fitting pants and a regulation SHIELD jacket. Tony was sitting leaned against the receptionist desk, but seemed well enough to snark back at the so called Director, despite the paleness of his face.

The SHIELD agents seemed to be screaming a dozen questions a minute. About what happened to Tony. About Loki’s escape. About the Tesseract. About the state of New York.

They were all valid questions. New York had experienced something unprecedented. Tony was clearly someone of import, much like Howard had been. Bruce was still the leading Gamma ray expert. Natasha and Clint were legendary spies or something. Steve wasn’t sure about the specifics on that, but he did know they were at least dependable fighters. Thor, of course, was the only one who had any answers about the Asgardians.

Steve understood, for the sake of the city, for the sake of the state, why everyone had to be questioned. He had willingly undergone his own mini-interrogation over Loki’s disguise on the way down.

Yet. Yet.

Like it or not, this was his team now. They weren’t the Howling Commandos. Could never be them. But they were Thor, who had just lost his brother once again. Clint, who had been forced into betraying his friends and just snapped out of mind control. Natasha, who had narrowly escaped the Hulk and then had to fight her best friend. Bruce, who had just faced his greatest fear for the sake of the city. Tony, who had laid down on the wire for them today.

Steve walked calmly to the nearest wall, and slammed his vibranium shield against it.

The resulting _rinnnng_ cut into every conversation. All turned to him, some looking stunned, others scrutinizing. Steve was beyond caring at this point.

“Enough,” Steve said quietly. “My team has just fought off an alien invasion. I understand you are concerned, but we deserve a break. I heard that you’re America’s best spy organization. You shouldn’t need six people to make sure the world doesn’t implode.”

Tony’s eyebrows rose further and further. He looked a strange cross between impressed and incredulous. Thor seemed appraising. Bruce, Steve noted with some amusement, just seemed confused.

“Woah.” Natasha whistled lowly, the corner of her lip lifting into a smirk. “The good Captain is really putting the foot down.”

“Captain Rogers,” the man who had introduced himself as Director Alexander Pierce said with a frown. “There are time sensitive matters which only the members ‘your team’ can answer. Surely your break can wait just a moment—”

“You can discuss it with me. Your priorities are, I assume, Loki’s escape and the state of New York. I understand that you have camera surveillance which can recognize Loki anywhere in the world. Facial recognition, I believe the term was? I would suggest you start there. Mr. Stark can of course check for footage of the Tower in his own time, but it would be extremely implausible for Loki to have stayed here after taking the Tesseract and failing to take the scepter.

“As for New York—clean up will be necessary, but not right away. Currently the prerogative is evacuation and rescue for any unfortunate stragglers. Although building integrity looks good right now, we can’t be sure if and how long everything will hold up. Next is thinking of a narrative to feed the media about what happened here today.” Here, his voice turned just the tiniest bit dry. “I imagine it won’t be easy breaking the world into the idea that aliens are real. In any case, I believe this should be enough to tide you over for the next 24 hours?”

Silence. Absolute silence.

Alexander Pierce chuckled, taking a step back and holding his hands up in surrender. “Alright, Captain, you’ve convinced me.” He turned, raising an arm and snapping his fingers. “That’s it then, men. We’ve all heard the Captain. Let’s get on it.”

The SHIELD agents left then. When they were all, finally gone, Steve allowed his shoulders to slump.

Tony stared after the departed agents. “Did all those mooks just leave because you _lectured_ them? The same agents who never leave me alone no matter how annoying I am? Am I just hallucinating this? Bruce, tell me this isn’t some traitorous vision my dying brain is cooking up.”

“I’m not that kind of doctor, Tony,” Bruce muttered in distraction, tugging at the collar of his SHIELD jacket. “And if you were hallucinating, I’d just be a figment of your imagination anyway. Hey, does anyone have a shirt that isn’t government issue?”

“Do you need to—go to a hospital or something, Tony?” Steve asked hesitantly.

The heart attack had been nothing short of frightening. They had just achieved victory against impossible odds, captured the bad guy, and somehow everybody had survived. The post-battle high had quickly came crashing down when Tony, who had seemed to escape death just by a hair’s breadth moments ago, was suddenly at its door again. Steve had never felt more helpless.

“Huh? Oh.” Tony’s head jerked from its distanced gaze back to Steve. He shrugged, grinning. “No, no need. There was a scary SHIELD nurse earlier. She checked everything and said my heart was A-OK. Then Jarvis and I ran diagnostics. I won’t bore you with the details, but basically we’re good for now. 24 hours, right?”

“Hmm,” Steve frowned. The Howling Commandos had a tendency to hide injury, too. The first time, Steve hadn’t caught it. Although he’d experienced every kind of illness as a child (and a teenager, and an adult), battle injuries were a different beast altogether. Post-serum, wounds never stayed long. But infections—those were fatal to the regular soldier, and they could come from anywhere.

Was Tony hiding, or was he genuinely fine? Steve didn’t think a regular person should be able to shrug off a heart attack like that. Then again, he also wasn’t a Stark. And who knew what medical advancements had been made in the past 70 years?

Once again, he felt a twist of guilt for not having kept up. He’d woken nearly a year ago, and he still knew nearly nothing about the modern world. Back then, it had felt wretched any time he’d looked at something about the new millennium. It had felt like he was abandoning his past. Giving up on his time. And he… just couldn’t do that.

Still couldn’t do it, in fact. The thought of trying to acclimatize himself ot this new era made his stomach roll in discomfort. But if he had looked into it, if he had bothered to read any of the information Fury had given him—wouldn’t he know more about Tony’s situation right now? He… would make more of an effort in the future.

“He really is okay, Captain,” Clint, surprisingly, put in. “He’ll need to go to a hospital eventually, but he should hold up for at least an hour or two.”

Tony made a face at bow-slinging ranger, but didn’t deny Clint’s words.

“Yep.” Tony popped the ‘p’. He raised an arm to gain some purchase against the receptionist desk, and pulled himself to his feet. “Well that was all very lovely at all. Thanks for scaring off the SHIELD agents, Popsicle. I’ll just be in my workroom trying to figure out where Loki could be.”

“And I,” Thor said grimly, already spinning his hammer, “need to talk to Heimdall about my brother’s escape.”

There wasn’t really a reason to stop them, except, except—

“Wait,” Steve called, holding out an arm to stop Thor. Thor arched a brow, and Steve hastily pulled his arm back. “Look, I didn’t negotiate a break so that you would go to work on your own terms. I mean it. We need a break.” He paused, brows furrowing. “Unless it’s imperative you need to speak to the other Asgardians about Loki, I mean.”

Thor looked at him thoughtfully, and lowered his hammer. “No, I suppose not. Heimdall sees all, and although Loki may be clouded from him, he is well aware of my actions. I fear not for Asgard.”

“Right then,” Steve breathed out. “Okay. So if you’re all free, how ‘bout we go for… that thing Tony was talking about earlier. Shawarma? I don’t know about all of you, but I’m bloody hungry.”

They weren’t a team, not really. Steve hadn’t picked them, and they hadn’t picked him. They didn’t know each other. What they did know of each other was the worst parts, manipulated by Loki’s scepter. They were just a group of people with skills that others didn’t have.

There wasn’t really a reason for them to eat together. They had their own lives. Their own things they wanted to do. Their own little rituals for an impossible experience such as this. Certainly, Fury probably wanted them to stick together. To build trust and a foundation. As team leader, that was Steve’s responsibility.

But the thing was, he hadn’t wanted this, either. And he was tired, so tired, when all the people he fought for were already dead. To be blunt, he didn’t really give a crap about building up the Avengers as a team, at least not at this moment.

Shawarma though. It wasn’t really about team building. It was just that they all looked so unhappy. Why wouldn’t they? He certainly didn’t feel happy. They had succeeded, only to fail at the last, critical moment.

But nobody else had experienced exactly what the six of them had. And maybe, maybe, the others could find something to talk about with each other. Something to lift those looks from their faces. All he had to do was provide the opportunity for them to do so.

There was a beat of silence. Then—

“Oh!” Thor’s eyes lit up. “A post-victory feast. I did not know Midgard had this tradition also.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” Tony snarked. “But we didn’t exactly win. Loki flew the pooch.”

“Our battle was against the Chitauri, Man of Iron. My brother is wily and difficult to predict. That he escaped is no reflection on your capabilities.”

Tony was beginning to look rebellious, but Clint cut him off with a nonchalant ‘I’m in’. And then it was up to the rest of the newly formed Avengers to give their voices of approval. They all did so. Even Bruce.

A quick phone call was made to a man named Jarvis. Then Tony led the way to the nearest Shawarma place. He and Bruce were chattering about some scientific thing or another. Steve lagged behind. Natasha slowed to match him.

“Hm,” Natasha’s tone was considering as she tilted her head towards him. “Those suggestions you gave to the Director—the more I think about it, the more I think it’s the right call to make. Greatest Tactical Mind in History. Guess they weren’t exaggerating when they put that in your comics, were they?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Steve said evenly. “There’s a lot of people in history.”

The female assassin laughed, low and velvety. “Oh. The other agents didn’t tell me you had a sense of humour. I’m gonna have to have a word with them.”

Despite himself, Steve felt his lips quirk. The truth of the matter was, he hadn’t felt all that humorous towards the other SHIELD members who had tried to ‘acclimatize him’ to this world. He supposed… he didn’t choose this team, but they weren’t that bad.

 

OoOoOoO

 

Shawarma, of course, went about as well as expected. They had chatted a little, but exhaustion had pervaded, and once they had sat down, it had been hard not to fall asleep right there. Tony had at some point checked up on the situation at his tower, and Steve was too tired to try and confiscate the billionaire’s phone.

Apparently Tony had asked Jarvis to look into the surveillance footage for evidence of Loki’s doings. And apparently, all cameras from the moment they had defeated Loki had just stopped working. Jarvis had to reboot the system. Tony was beyond furious and demanded to know how Loki could bypass all his security.

“Is is possible,” Thor had admitted. “Your technology is quite primitive, and my brother learned the mystical arts at the knee of Frigga the Weaver.” He paused at that, his face darkening. “And I have found that I know much less about my brother than previously imagined.”

After Shawarma, they each went their separate ways. Thor promised to contact them if he found anything, and flew away with his hammer. Clint reluctantly admitted that they did have to check in with SHIELD. Tony invited Bruce to stay with him, but Bruce had apparently left a few things on the Hellicarrier and needed to retrieve them. He, Clint, and Natasha had departed together.

That just left Steve and Tony.

“Not heading back with Bonnie and Clyde, Cap?”

“What?” Steve’s head snapped to face Tony. He was appalled by the comparison. Although many of his neighbours had celebrated the duo, he’d always thought the stories in the newspapers were just awful. “They’re not… nevermind. Mr. Stark, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Uh-oh, that tone never bodes anything good. Alright then.” Tony spread his arms wide, a grin on his face. It somehow didn’t look the least bit happy. “Come at me.”

Tony was infuriating. For a moment, Steve felt the familiar spark of anger that had been so prevalent on the Hellicarier. And then he sighed, and began making his way towards the tower. “Take pity on an old man, will you? If you make barbs based on popular culture and the like, just know that I can’t begin to understand that.”

“Oh.” Tony blinked, and strangely, seemed to deflate. He quickly jogged over to walk in line with the blond. “Right. Um, so. What do you need to talk to me about then, Captain?”

“That depends,” Steve sighed. “Do you think we’re under surveillance?”

It was so baffling. That wasn’t a question he’d ever had thought to ask 70 years ago. Heck, it wasn’t a question he’d ever thought would need to be asked in the future. But he’d seen the cameras on the streets. It made him feel tense, like he couldn’t take a walk to relax anymore. Why had the American people accepted this kind of violation?

“Woah. Woah.” Tony’s eyes went wide. “So it’s that kind of conversation, huh?”

“Might be a matter of national security.” Steve said, forcing his tone to be light. “Let’s wait ‘till after we get back to your tower. By the way, are any of the SHIELD guys still there?”

“Um, I don’t think so. Jarvis?” Tony fiddled with his phone. Steve’s superior senses heard Jarvis reply in the negative. “Yep, they’re all gone. Why? Do you want me to call them back?”

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

“By the way, Cap?” Tony’s shoulders had relaxed. He grinned. “What’s up with calling me Mr. Stark if I’m not in trouble? You called me Tony earlier, when you were threatening me with the hospital.”

Steve blushed. “That just… that just slipped out. We’ve fought together now.”

“Works for me,” Tony chuckled. “Mr. Stark reminds me of my father, anyway. As far as I’m concerned, people who’ve had Shawarma with me are on first name basis.”

“Didn’t you say you wanted Shawarma today because you’ve never tried it?”

It was surprisingly easy, talking after that. Finally, they made it back to the tower. As soon as they did so—as soon as they entered one of the elevators, where they were ensured of privacy, Tony turned to him.

“Okay, so you’ve gotta tell me what all this is about,” Tony said plaintively. “I mean, I expected this mysterious hush hush stuff from Scary Lady, but you’re supposed to be the American Boy Scout, you know? Kinda crossing lines here.”

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Steve said mildly. The elevator dinged as they reached their destined floor. Steve crossed the length of it, knowing that Tony was following him. He made his way to the cabinets, jimmied open the one he remembered, and then turned and held out the scepter.

Tony’s mouth dropped open.

Steve couldn’t help it. His lips twitched. This was probably the most satisfying moment about this otherwise insane day.

“What the— _why_ do you have—?”

“I don’t trust SHIELD.” Steve said bluntly. “They were using the Tesseract to make weapons. They managed to lose both the Tesseract _and_ the scepter to Loki. But I trust you.”

Tony’s eyes were wide as he stared at the blond. “Me? You trust me?”

“That’s right.” Steve nodded. “There’s a few things about this scepter we don’t know. And I’ve been hoping you could find out…”

He quickly explained how he had lost, and that Loki had just left the scepter regardless. He explained his theory about the scepter doing more than it had been shown to do.

Tony was quiet for a long moment. And then—

“Are you sure you want to trust me?”

“What do you mean, Tony?”

“I just—I really screwed the pooch, didn’t I? My tech malfunctioned. That’s why—that’s why Loki was able to get away.”

Oh. _Oh_.

“Look, Tony,” Steve sighed. “That wasn’t your fault. We just got off a highly stressful situation, you especially. In fact none of us thought to check if there might have been any anomalies from flying through a wormhole.”

“Yeah, but none of you are Tony Stark, tech genius extraordinaire,” Tony said bitterly. “Look Cap, I know I messed up. You don’t need to make me feel better about it.”

“I’m not trying to. Tony, you _saved_ all of us. You almost died because of it. Twice, it seems.” He let out a chuckle. Because that first time had been necessary, but that second time? It could have been easily avoided. And contrary to what Tony thought, it was actually his responsibility as team leader. “And you didn’t even think about it before making the sacrifice. I… earlier I said that you weren’t a hero. I was wrong. Really wrong. I’m sorry.”

There was an expression on Tony’s face that looked uncomfortably vulnerable. It was disbelieving, bewildered. As if he never expected Steve to say those things to him.

Then the moment passed, and callous insouciance slid over Tony like it had always been there. He raised a shoulder in a shrug. “Yeah, well, I shouldn’t have said all those things either. Pep would have me by the balls for belittling America’s Number One Hero like that.”

“Oh.” Yet another aspect of the Stark that he hadn’t seen seen. Steve shook his head to dismiss it. “Anyway, I’m not sure there was anything you could have done about that tech malfunction. On the elevator down, after we’d defeated Loki, when you were bragging…”

“See, bragging’s not the word I’d use there—”

“You were _bragging_ about how Loki’s scepter hadn’t worked on you. Granted, if the scepter does do things other than give immediate control, you might be affected but just not aware. But at the time, Loki had his alien army behind him. I can’t think of a single reason why he wouldn’t immediately take control of you. And if there was some kind of master plan, then Loki is so beyond us that we probably will never be able to defeat him. So I was thinking, that maybe instead of controlling you…”

“… the scepter caused the Arc Reactor to malfunction,” Tony finished in realization, eyes wide.

“Something you could also look into while researching the scepter,” Steve said kindly.

The two were silent for a few minutes. Steve could practically see his companion’s brain whirling over the implications of everything that they discussed.

“Hey,” Tony said hesitantly. “I’m not really good at thinking about these things—Pepper always says so. But it just occurred to me. I mean, are you living with SHIELD right now?”

A beat. That was not where Steve was expecting this to go. “Yes?”

He couldn’t have made the question sound more confused if he tried.

“Yeah, so. Are you not seeing the problem with that?” Tony ran a hand through his hair. “Apparently you distrust them to the point where you would rather give an alien weapon to _me_ , the Merchant of Death himself. And you’re fine with sleeping under the same roof as them?”

“Well,” Steve heard his voice as if from a distance. He sounded lost. So fucking lost. “Where else would I go?”

Tony did something with his hands. Playing with his cuff links, Steve noted with some bemusement.

“Look, um.” Tony began, looking anywhere but Steve’s face. “So I’ve been like, thinking that if Avengers were going to be a thing, we should have a HQ right? I mean obviously Stark Tower’s not complete, and it’ll take a few months to get everything in tip top shape. Plus a good chunk of New York has just been wrecked by Ralph over there, so that’s a thing I’ll have to fix and—”

“Tony,” Steve cut in. “What’s your point?”

“Right.” Tony breathed, turning back and meeting Steve’s eyes square on. “We have a few usable floors, you know? Bruce will be staying here, so you won’t be alone. And you can keep an eye on me, and the scepter, and make sure I’m not destroying the world or anything.”

He smiled like quicksilver, sudden and fleeting. There was something in that smile that was difficult to decipher. Something that made Steve think Tony was expecting him to refuse.

“Oh.” Steve wanted to refuse. He didn’t want to impose on anyone like this. At least with SHIELD, it was a fair if discontent transaction. Tony though? What would a man like Tony need from someone like him?

And yet there seemed to be a plea in Tony’s eyes to not refuse. Steve was reminded of that moment earlier, when he had called Tony a hero, and Tony hadn’t believed it. Steve didn’t understand it. But he didn’t seem to be understanding a lot about Tony Stark, did he?

So instead of refusing, Steve smiled.

“Okay, I’ll live in your ugly tower.”

**Author's Note:**

> *Aims for 1.5k chapters so I don’t get overwhelmed, feels like not enough happened and ends up with nearly 5k* I’m ashamed of myself. Just so you know, I am still aiming for 1-2k chapters for all future updates. Whether or not I’ll actually meet my goal is another thing entirely…  
> Fun Fact: I had considered doing this title as ‘No One Left Behind’, because this feels a wee bit disingenuous to the lovely Nat, but it doesn’t quite have the right ring, does it? Historically, this phrase comes from the Seven Years War (French and Indian War for you Americans), where a group of soldiers named Roger’s Rangers famously lived to this standard. I thought it apt. So you’ll just have to pretend ‘Man’ here includes ‘Woman’, because seriously, Nat is the best.


End file.
